A £7 MILLION extension to Wellesley Hospital on the outskirts of Wellington is set to be completed in the ‘coming weeks’, writes Barry Knott.

Montpelier Estates, which built the hospital at Westpark 26, was given planning permission nearly two years ago to ‘erect a 30-bedroom care and treatment facility on land adjacent to Wellesley Hospital, Chelston’.

The new build occupies 1.2 acres on land behind Budgen’s convenience store and petrol filling station.

It is a low-secure mental healthcare facility which will create 30 full-time jobs on top of the 200 staff the hospital already employs.

It will accommodate people with learning difficulties with a feeling of ‘being at home’.

Wellesley Hospital was built at a cost of £20 million and opened in May of 2017 with an initial staff of 60.

The hospital enables mentally ill patients to return to the South-West from hospitals all over the country and support them towards independence.

The extension provides a further boost to Chelston which has created hundreds of new jobs in recent years, helped by its proximity to the M5.

A ‘drive-thru’ Costa coffee shop on the Westpark 26 business park opened earlier this year and a McDonald’s is being built – also at Chelston – and is set to be completed early in the New Year. It will employ 65 full- and part-time staff and will seat 140 customers – and will also include a ‘drive-thru’ facility.